Firstly if Paul or Christopher Silburn ever visit this site I’d love to hear from you; please contact me.

Family story has it that grandfather (Francis Henry / Frank) was a Seargant Major in the Royal Staffordshire Regiment during WW1 & a special policeman during WW2. However as yet I can’t find his military records for the war period. I can find when he enlisted in January 1907 & was discharged on payment of £1 in February 1907 but I’m guessing that has something to do with the fact that he wasn’t even 17 years old then!

He married grandma in Folkestone (I found him in 1911 living & working in Dover). They had two children there & then returned to Staffordshire & had two more. At some time after the war they returned to live in Cheriton.

I sadly never knew grandmother as she died before I was born. Grandfather remarried very quickly after her death & as I spent my childhood in Nigeria I didn’t see him except on holidays. His second wife died & he returned to Staffordshire where he married his brother John’s widow & remained in Staffordshire until he died. I was back in the UK as a teenager but living in Folkestone, so again only saw him on visits, which were few & far between so sadly never really got to know him.